I may have saved the best for last.
I never speak in absolutes about favorite books or poems or writers, but I think Luci Shaw’s “Made Flesh” is my favorite poem for Advent.
Of course, I’ve mentioned Luci Shaw a few times before. Advent may be pouring itself out into the glory of the Christmas season, but Shaw’s poetry is an excellent literary companion through the whole year. Might I suggest beginning the new year with her poems close at hand?
This one is worth reading slowly.
And repeatedly.
\
Made Flesh
After
the white-hot beam of annunciation
fused heaven with dark earth,
his searing, sharply focused light
went out for a while,
eclipsed in amniotic gloom:
his cool immensity of splendor,
his universal grace,
small-folded in a warm, dim
female space –
the Word stern-sentenced to be
nine months’ dumb –
infinity walled in a womb,
until the next enormity –
the Mighty One, after submission
to a woman’s pains,
helpless on a barn’s bare floor,
first-tasting bitter earth.
Now
I in him surrender
to the crush and cry of birth.
Because eternity
was closeted in time,
he is my open door to forever.
From his imprisonment
my freedoms grow,
find wings. Part of his body,
I transcend this flesh.
From his sweet silence my mouth sings.
Out of his dark I glow.
My life, as his,
slips through death’s mesh,
time’s bars,
joins hands with heaven,
speaks with stars.
– Luci Shaw, from Accompanied by Angels
Simply wonderful. I will read it again. Oh, are you done? I have enjoyed this so much, Friend!
Nearly there, Summer! This isn’t my final Advent post, but it is the last poem I’ll share this Advent.
I think Luci Shaw will be at the Festival of Faith and Writing this spring. Maybe you and I will get the chance to hear her there?
1. “Nine months’ dumb” — wow. I’d never thought about that.
2. You’re going? Hug you in April, then!
1. I know. Crazy, yes?!
2. You’ll be there, too? Early Christmas present! Especially since I don’t think I can swing Glen East this year. 🙁 Just a difficult time of year for leaving all the kids for so long (and the garden!).
How new and fresh ….never thought or heard of the wonder spoken this way.
I will now look for Luci Shaw’s poetry.
How close I feel to you Christie, as I read your heart. Yet we are complete strangers., most likely never to meet. Something about the spirit that moves over miles….
Thank you and Merry Christmas Christie!
Thank you, Gwen. I know just what you mean. Merry Christmas to you and yours!
I adore Luci Shaw and have for YEARS. And this is one of my favorites. Thank you, Christie, for this gorgeous series and most especially today, for reminding me of this glory. May you and yours have a Merry Christmas!!
Merry Christmas, Diana! I am so grateful to have shared this Advent with you (despite the miles between!).